TRIALS IN SPECIAL COURTS
17/18 June: Umtali Prison sentences ranging from 2 to 6 years were imposed on 18 people convicted of failing to report the presence of guerillas in the Inyanga district, during the period from the end of March to May 1976. JOHN MANDIKUTSE, the headmaster of a school 40 km from Umtali, was jailed for 4 years; ZWIKAYI FANI, a night watchman at a municipal beerhall near Ruda Police Station, 6 years; STEPHEN MADOTSA, 3 years; NICHOLAS FEREMBA, a kraal head, 4 years; MANDINDE MAKABVEPI, also a kraal head, and 7 other men from Makabvepi kraal outside Ruda, each jailed for 4 years; SARUD-ZAYI MARUME and TOZOWAWEPI ZVARE-WAMAMBO, each sentenced to 4 years; FERAYI and STEPHEN ZINDI, brothers, each 2 years; PHINEAS DZINGAYI, a kraal head, 5 years; ZWIDZAYI JONIAH, 4 years. Passing sentence, Mr. W.F. Henning, as president of the Special Court, said that the security situation in Rhodesia called for "more resolution" on the part of people generally. From mid-March to mid-May, he continued, only about 10 unsolicited reports of guerillas had been received by officials in the Holdenby Tribal Trust Land, on the Mozambique border near Inyanga. A further 19 people were also reported to have received prison terms on 17 June of 2 to 6 years for failing to report guerillas, at the Umtali Special court.
18 June: Salisbury DARLINGTON PHILLIMON KANYASA, 23, was sentenced to death for allegedly being found in possession of arms of war, a charge to which he pleaded not guilty. Mr. Kanyasa, who had lost a leg in a landmine explosion, stated in his defence that he had been injured while looking for work and had not been found in the area that the prosecution alleged. He also alleged that he had been tortured by having water poured in his nose, being struck on the head, and burnt on the thigh with an electric instrument. On an application by the state, an order was granted prohibiting the publication of the place or the nature of the place where Mr. Kanyasa was arrested.
23 June: Umtali An unnamed 18-year-old boy was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment for failing to report the presence of guerillas in the Zimunya Tribal Trust Land, 32 km south of Umtali. It was alleged that a well established guerilla camp was found close to the main road to Chipinga shortly after the youth was arrested in May 1976.
23(?): June: Umtali BLESSING CHIEDZA, from Mutambara TTL, Cashel, was sentenced to death for warning a group of guerillas camped outside his kraal of the imminent arrival of two plainclothes police-men. Neither of the policemen was injured. The group of 8 guerillas was alleged to have previously held a meeting attended by all the residents of the kraal, at which Chiedza was instructed to keep a look-out for security forces.
8 July: Bindura, and subsequently Salisbury GOLDBERG MAKAMBA, 27, a farm manager, was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for failing to report the presence of guerillas who killed his employer, Mr. Frank Pitcher, of Mtepatepa, on 14 June 1976. The court was told that a group of guerillas had arrived at the farm on the night of Saturday 12 June, had held a meeting at Mr. Makamba's house, demonstrated their weapons and had been given food. Mr. Justice Smith, passing sentence, said that Makamba had had "ample opportunity" to report the guerillas on the following day, 13 June, and, but for the fact that he did not sympathise with them, might well have received the death penalty. A girl employee on the farm, FUNGISAYI GAMA HOKO, aged about 19, who had pleaded guilty to a similar charge to Mr. Makamba, was sentenced to 4 years jail, of which 2½ years were conditionally suspended. On 14 July, the Special Court, still seated in Salisbury, found two other employees of Mr. Pitcher, FERO BATWELL, 34, a cook, and ISAKI DECEMBER, 23, a house servant, not guilty of failing to report the guerillas. Both were acquitted on the grounds that they were not aware of the group's arrival at the farm.
21 July: Umtali BASOPA MUNYAMA, a deputy kraal head and RODRECK TIKABVA, both from Muradzikwa Kraal in the Muroma TTL south of Umtali, were sentenced to death on conviction of a main charge of inciting, aiding and abetting a group of guerillas to execute two African police constables. Six other men, all from Muradzikwa kraal, received prison sentences ranging from 2 to 20 years for the same offence. They were named as RODGERS MURAZA, GEORGE CHABWANA, REUBEN TEDDY MAPENZAUSWA (a teacher), ELISHA TIKABVA and a 16-year-old boy. The Rhodesian press, in reporting the three-week long hearing, revealed a striking degree of solidarity between local residents and a group of guerillas who had allegedly held a meeting at Muradzikwa kraal on 20 June. The court heard that the two African policemen, Constande Mutsvairo and Constable Madhiri, in plain clothes, had been investigating a guerilla presence in Muroma TTL when they were themselves arrested by a group of 6 guerillas. The policemen were searched, stripped and then taken with their hands tied to a kraal where 7 more guerillas and between 50 and 60 local people were gathered. The two men were identified to the crowd as "CIDs" and people were given the opportunity of questioning them. The meeting grew to about 100 people who listened to speeches from the guerillas. Eventually, the crowd was asked what they thought should be done to the captured police-men. According to Constable Mutsvairo, "everyone in the crowd shouted: 'We want them killed', saying it several times." "They quietened down when (the guerillas) told them to behave and 'not to shout as if you are independent.'" The guerillas then "ordered the men and women back to their homes, reminded them not to report and told them not to fear the curfew as there were no security forces in the area." The two constables subsequently managed to escape and the 8 accused who had been among the crowd were arrested.
End July: Mtoko 4 men, described as "tribal headmen" were sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from 8 to 12 years for failing to report the presence of guerillas. 6 farm labourers, tried separately, were each sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for the same offence.
End July: Inyanga LUKE BUMHIRA, 30, was sentenced to death on charges of possessing arms of war. At the same sitting of the Special Court a 78-year-old man, MWANDIRAWA PASIPAWORA, was sentenced to 3 years, with 18 months suspended, for failing to report guerillas. 4 other men, DONZAYI KANYURU, 50, ASA BYABEZE, 35, KAJAWO KAMBAZA, 48, and TAURAWI ZENDA, 40, were each sentenced to 5 years for the same offence. ROMEC MUKEKWE (phonetic) was also sentenced to death by the Inyanga Special Court around this time on conviction of guerilla activities. TIKKI TAPERA (phonetic), convicted of giving active assistance to guerillas, was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.
End July: Umtali 2 guerillas, NISA GURUPATI, 20, and PETER-SEN GUVA, 24, were sentenced to death on conviction of carrying arms of war. Gurupati was alleged to have trained in Tanzania returning to Mozambique together with 750 other guerillas early in 1976. Guva had also undergone training in Tanzania.
6 August: Salisbury SPEKE MAROWA was sentenced by an unspecified "criminal court in Salisbury" to 15 years imprisonment, half of which was conditionally suspended, for possessing arms of war. Also on 6 August, and again at an unspecified "court in Salisbury", ANDICKI NHENDE, 45, a kraal head in the Mangwende TTL north-east of Salisbury, was sentenced to 12 years for failing to report the presence of guerillas. Mr. Justice Beck, passing sentence, said that it had been an "exceptionally serious instance" of failure to report because Nhende had possessed particularly valuable knowledge about the guerillas which, if passed on to the security forces, would have enabled them to "wipe out" the band.
10 August: Essexvale ELIAS NJANI MOYO, 50, a branch treasurer of the ANC, was sentenced to life imprisonment for harbouring and feeding 3 guerillas who killed a white man, Mr. Leonard Ashby, in his store near Balla Balla on 7 July. A main charge of murder, or alternatively of inciting the guerillas to kill Mr. Ashby, was not pressed by the State. The prosecution, however, in pressing for a sentence of death to be passed, suggested that it might be "a suitable case in which to create a precedent by imposing the ultimate penalty to prevent a similar situation arising here from what now prevails in the north-eastern areas." Mr. Moyo, who was working for a Bulawayo firm of furniture manufacturers and ran a store near to Mr. Ashby's, denied all the charges and said that he had never seen the guerillas believed to have been responsible for the killing.
OTHER CONVICTIONS
24(?): June: Chipinga Periodical Court MAPFUPFU SEVEN CHIKUMBA, a 70-year-old man, was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment with labour for failing to report the presence of guerillas in the Musikavanhu TTL, south of Chipinga. 4 years of the sentence was conditionally suspended for 5 years out of consideration for Mr. Chikumba's age. He was alleged to have watched a group of guerillas planting a landmine, which subsequently killed one person and seriously injured 3 others, in the main road near where he was working. His "moral blameworthiness" in not reporting the matter, merited, according to the magistrate, "an extremely severe penalty". Also at Chipinga, an unnamed man described as a foreman on the Rhodesian Wattle Company estate between Melsetter and Chipinga, was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment for sheltering a group of more than 15 guerillas.
15 July: Harare Magistrate's Court, Salisbury TITUS MUKARATI, 40, the provincial organising secretary of the Muzorewa wing of the African National Council, appeared briefly in court on an allegation of assisting guerillas. He was said to have given money to guerillas in the Msana TTL north-east of Salisbury to buy clothing, and had also supplied them with a radio. He was not asked to plead and was remanded in custody until 29 July.
End July: Regional Circuit Court, Bindura A total of 56 workers from Amanda farm, Mtepatepa, north of Bindura, were each sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for failing to report the presence of guerillas. A group of guerillas had allegedly arrived at the farm on the evening of 12 June and been fed by employees before, on 14 June, murdering the owner, Mr. Frank Pitcher. A total of 77 workers from the farm appeared before the court, all pleading not guilty. 21 were acquitted. A further 4 employees, namely the farm manager, a cook, house servant and a teenage girl, had appeared before a Special Court in Salisbury earlier in July.
4 August: Salisbury High Court GODSON A. CHINYADZA, 21, who pleaded guilty to possessing arms of war, was sentenced to death for his part in a rocket attack on the home of Minister Chief Mangwende, in the Mrewa district. In a statement Chinyadza said that he and his colleagues "said we would frighten (Chief Mangwende) because he was a Member of Parliament by using a bazooka". Noone was injured in the attack and damage to buildings was described as "moderate". The date of the raid was not disclosed. Chief Mangwende is one of 4 Chiefs recently appointed to Cabinet posts by the Smith regime.
